A person or animal can be seriously injured or die when left in an enclosed space, such as a vehicle, for a prolonged period of time. The person may be unable to exit the vehicle due to a physical constraint, for example, a handicap. The person may also be a child or infant still strapped into a car seat or merely remaining in a closed or locked vehicle. Injury or death may occur, for example, from exposure to extreme temperatures that develop in a closed motor vehicle. A high temperature can cause a person or animal in the closed motor vehicle to suffer dehydration or heat exhaustion and ultimately death. Similarly, extreme cold temperatures for a prolonged period of time can cause injury to a person or animal left unattended in a motor vehicle.
Typical automobile alarm systems protect an automobile from vandalism and burglary by sounding an alarm when a locked automobile door is opened without a key, a window is broken, or the car is moved, e.g., motion detection. These types of alarm systems do not detect the presence of a person or animal in the automobile in which they are unable to exit the automobile and the driver of the vehicle has left. Other safety devices for children and infants such as car seats are designed to reduce injury in an accident, but are not directed to a child being inadvertently left in a closed or locked automobile.
It would therefore be desirable to provide a method and apparatus for detecting the presence of a person or animal within a confined space such as an automobile.